A very special commute

My journey home from the office is pretty cushty really. Ten-minute walk. Twenty-minute train. Ten-minute walk. It’s even symmetrical, for crying out loud. 

So after a long day, why would I willingly add 45 minutes and three tube changes to it?  

To take these photos of our biggest campaign of the year – Crisis at Christmas

The funny thing is, most of the copy on these ads wasn’t even written by me. These are the authentic words of Crisis members, based on their own lived experience. There’s just no way that any copywriter could do a more powerful job. As soon as we read the stories back in the spring, we knew the campaign had to lead with them. 

Working alongside Crisis, we made sure every word was agreed with the three members we were featuring – Michelle, David and Saleeha. And even when I did come up with one of the headlines based on Michelle’s story, we confirmed with her that it reflected her own experience. 

Authenticity was our key principle when it came to rolling out the campaign – ‘The First Day’. We even went as far as using AI to create a bespoke font based on the members’ actual handwriting.  

As for the all-important TV ad, we introduced ourselves to a technology never before used for DRTV – Cyclops. Yes, it’s just as cool as it sounds. Cyclops is a wearable camera that truly captures exactly what the operator is seeing, periphery and all. 

It meant that we could tell Michelle’s story in a unique way – from trying to sleep on buses to avoid the cold, to opening the door to her home. We captured sounds and little moments of dialogue to work in, so we could immerse viewers as much as possible. The post-midnight shoot finish and one-hour Uber home was very much worth it when seeing the final edit. 

The thrill of seeing your work out in the wild never really gets old. That’s why I took that elongated commute, and why I sat through Catchphrase to watch the TV ad on a real-life telly. (Okay fine, I like Catchphrase anyway.)  

Did I purposefully sit underneath one of our ads in the tube carriage, so I could see if the people opposite were looking up and reading it? Maybe. Sadly, there was never a spontaneous round of applause like I’d imagined, but never mind. 

I even ended up having a cameo in one of the TikTok ads we made, which we filmed at the Crisis at Christmas HQ. It’s a massive warehouse filled with boxes of donations – clothes, food, toiletries, you name it. It’s an incredible operation, but it also made it clear why this campaign has to be as big as it is. Because that entire warehouse of boxes will be needed by people like Michelle this Christmas. 

Yes, the thrill of seeing your work is pretty significant. But it’s nothing compared to the thrill of hearing about donations flooding in because of it.